Archive for januari, 2011

Today are millions people using online calenders to synchronize our twenty-four hours, even if we have digital support we cannot get enough hours to manage our life. Wouldn’t it be great if Google Calender could offer increased life quality, more hours and make millions at the same time?

Imagine that you today in your calender write that your family will travel to Las Vegas or Paris. How much would it be worth for you to not need to spend days in searching for all the travel information that is needed for this trip? For Google AdWords it is worth millions. With a connection to the calender all your future could be searchable. If Hertz would like to rent you a car it would be too late if you already today reserved a car that will wait for your family when you arrive. There is no question if advertisers will pay for AdWords in your calender – only how much they will pay. In other words no need to go to Yahoo and make a search – when answers are served in your personal Google calender. The market value of being number 1 is simple to make a deal or not! Google and others have been questioning in how much they are commercializing privacy. If they offer consumers added value to make every twenty-four hours to become 30 hours, then people will be more keen to accept more information.

If they created a scale from 1 to 10 so people can choose how much information they want to receive. 1 can be no information 2 travel information and 3 can be suggestions for how to discover new values where you live. 4 can be different choices to create meeting where on places you plan to go – connection done with Google Earth. 5-7 can be more personal and be on an coaching level. 8-10 can be to change your life in an level that can be compared with the movie The Game (where reality and fiction is mixed to challenge your personality to develop).

Advertisers could then match their offers with the behaviors of millions of people choose to move and travel. As an example can constructors offer repairs of home and cars when their costumers are traveling. Home service offers when the timing is good.

Costumers today know their value and with above scale they have the power to choose how many hours they would like to get out of the trip, life and everyday life. In other words, get paid in life quality for open up for information.

Making money of privacy is not the idea. Instead the idea is not to let advertisers to know who you are – only to connect behavior with offers. And let consumers have the power to control information level and start to consume if they chose to do so.

Apparently Walk the talk can also be done on water. In Vac from the Sea projectElectrolux walks on water – in the sense that they have recycled plastics from the sea. By doing so they reached 100 million people, I believe that many brands could learn walking on water from this project.

Watch their video – their goal is not only to reach people but also to get them involved. They developed a number of tools for spreading the word.I believe this project can give their brand good karma.

Internet is offering a lot of opportunities. Ashley Madison are offering millions to find an partner to be unfaithful with.

In this video are media reporting about Ashley Madison, witch makes headlines in Swedish media. Ashley Madison commercial did rejected from Super Bowl. Yes it is morally objectionable, but still it is an behavior that lots of brands have to learn to live with – consumers loyalty 2.0 is creating what I call Desperate Branding (deliver or consumers will be unfaithful).

I read Engage by humble Brian Solis. This book is in an excellent way lifting social media to an academic level. I think it is important to show that social media is not an hype. Brian compares the content in his comprehensive book with University studies – and he does it without becoming “academic dull.”
In this book Brian explains step by step how companies need to change to become an engaging company internally and externally. He also explains how social media can be used as a tool for managing change management. One of his strengths is that he not only involves the marketing department but takes a holistic approach and focus on the whole company to change (or update itself with the change and success that the new web offers for those who embrace-IT).

Some of the best points in Brian Solis book Engage:
• Brands will evolve, customers will gain in prominence, and brands will humanize–with ore without you.
• People don’t participate in conversations with brands; they converse with the people who are the ambassadors of the brands.
• … social media universe is in danger of spinning off course and into a black hole of obscurity.
• Earn their attention.
• It’s people that make something viral, not the video itself.
• It is our job to serve as a bridge between the interesting content we crete and those who are seeking it.
• The Web has both simplified and complicated the process of decision-making.
• Focus attention, trigger activity, and measure ROI.
• Transformation begins with observation.

Some of the best expressions in the book:
• We are one…
• Remember that thing called a TV?
• Social ecosystem.
• Listen, learning, and participating.
• SRM (social relationship management).
• Soft-selling.
• Drivers for engagement.
• Your costumers are among the most influential stakeholders presented today.
• The Internet, for better or for worse, has a long memory.
• Humanizing company and product messaging.
• We earn the relationships we deserve.

Brian digs deep into the technology opportunities that The Web offers to Engage with consumers. If you follow Brian’s ideas the world will probably spin faster around your brand. But that will happen only if brandowners are willing to learn and adopt from the dialogue opportunities that consumers offers by The Web.

One of the last pages in Brian’s book is pointing out “inspire rapid evolution,” which is exactly what I think his book does excellent.

An interesting thing happened while I was reading Brian’s book. As I came to the part where Brian writes about “galvanizes community” I got a request to hold a speech for the galvanizes industry organization Nordic Galvanizers (and during that lecture I quoted Brian to point out how they can galvanize also their costumer relations with social media).

Also I think this book is a good study of the american corporate culture.